1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to navigation system for vehicles and, more particularly, to a navigation system for a vehicle, a data server, a traveling route establishing method and an information providing method to be carried out with the navigation system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In related art, on-vehicle navigation devices have been widely in use to guide a vehicle along a traveling route in accordance with an operational input made by a user. Attempts have been heretofore been made to realize the on-vehicle navigation device through the use of GPS (Global Positioning System) that provides the current position of the vehicle whereby when a destination and routed spots are input by the user, the on-vehicle navigation device operates to establish an optimum traveling route starting from the current position of the vehicle and the destination via the routed spots to allow the vehicle to properly be guided with a desired map being displayed over a display unit.
With the on-vehicle navigation device set forth above, it has been a usual practice for the user to input the destination and routed spots in various ways, such as a first way of retrieving the destination and routed spots while scrolling a map provided over the display unit and designating the destination and routed spots on the map, and a second way of causing a list of names of principal points to be displayed over the display unit to allow a desired destination and routed spots to be selected from the list.
However, with the input methods described above, the user undergoes an increased complexity in operation, resulting in an increased load to be experienced by the user. To address such an issue, various attempts have been made involving Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5-241507, which discloses a map note printed with bar code at areas corresponding to locations of principal intersections and tourist spots, etc., which are read out with a bar code scanner connected to an on-vehicle navigation device to enable the destination and routed spots to be inputted.
With the on-vehicle navigation device of such a structure, a capability of inputting the destination and routed spots with the use of the bar codes provides an ease for the user to execute the operational input of the destination and routed spots, resulting in favorable convenience for using.
In the meantime, a drive plan is not always prepared by the user after riding in the vehicle installed with the on-vehicle navigation device, and, rather, there are many instances where the user prepares the drive plan at a home outside the vehicle by referring to a tourist guide.
However, the related art on-vehicle navigation device, with such a structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5-241507, the operational inputs for the destination and routed spots involving the bar code input operation are made possible to be carried out only within the vehicle. Thus, if the drive plan is prepared at a site outside the vehicle, there is a need for the user to memorize the destination and routed spots in a way of some kind whereupon, after riding on the vehicle, the user needs to input these destination and routed spots into the on-vehicle navigation device. As a result, despite the preliminarily preparing the drive plan outside the vehicle, a difficulty is encountered in promptly starting the vehicle after riding on the same, or the user suffers a complicated input operations for the destination and routed spots based on the user""s memory.
The present invention has been completed with the above view in mind and has an object of the present invention to provide a navigation system for a vehicle, a data. server, a traveling route establishing method and an information providing method which are easy to operate in a simple manner with a high accuracy to enable input operation of a destination and routed spots into a remotely placed on-vehicle navigation device installed on a vehicle at a site outside the vehicle in a highly reliable fashion.
The first aspect of the present invention provides a navigation system for executing route guidance for a vehicle, comprising: a portable information processing device operative to read out code data indicative of map information from a print product and to transmit the code data; a code data processing unit operative to convert the code data into area information indicative of a location on a map coordinate system, to store the area information, to read out the stored area information and to transmit the read out area information; and an on-vehicle navigation device installed on a vehicle and operative to establish a traveling route in response to the area information transmitted from the code data processing unit to execute route guidance for the vehicle along the established traveling route.